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Just A Minute : 1st to 5th Series (1967-1971)

Publication date: 1952

Topics: Old Time Radio

Language: English

Item Size: 2.2G

Just A Minute : A radio panel game created by Ian Messiter in 1967.

All of these recordings are taken from Transcription Service vinyl discs, either recorded directly from an actual disc or recorded from a digital broadcast of the disc on Australian radio.

All the episodes of Just A Minute which aired prior to 1990 are rare, because they have been banned by the BBC and are no longer broadcast. Presented here are the rarest of all, including the surviving recordings from the first ever series, which began in December 1967.

The game is usually played by a panel of four showbusiness celebrities (although in some early editions there are only three), under the control of chairman Nicholas Parsons.

Regular panellists through the years included Clement Freud (an MP, who was originally a celebrity chef), Derek Nimmo (a stage and film actor specialising in comedy roles), Kenneth Williams (a comedy actor in film and on radio), and Peter Jones (an actor on radio and tv who usually played in comedy, and who on occasion also wrote his own comedy material). The original producer was David Hatch.

Contestants have to speak on a subject nominated by the chairman (who has a stack of cards in front of him, with the subjects written on, from which he selects one). Each round lasts one minute. A player has to speak without hesitating, without repeating any word (gradually this rule changed, so that eventually they were allowed to repeat the words on the card), and without deviating from the chosen subject.

If a contestant believes the person speaking has hesitated, repeated a word, or deviated from the subject, they can 'buzz' in with a challenge. If the chairman rules the challenge valid, the successful challenger gains one point, and takes over the subject. The person who is speaking at the end of the minute gains an extra point. But if he has been speaking for the entire minute without being challenged, he is also awarded a bonus point. At the end of the half-hour, the contestant with most points wins.

The chairman has a stopwatch to time the speaker. Whenever anyone buzzes-in, the watch is stopped, and is only restarted after the challenge has been adjudicated, when the round continues. A whistle is blown to indicate the completion of the minute (in the earliest recordings, a hooter is used instead).

Don't look for consistency in the application of the rules! In these early years, the rules change nearly every week, as Nicholas Parsons had a broad remit to improvise, so as to enable ideas that worked to replace rules which didn't, as the show tried to find a successful format. For instance, no one involved had much idea as to what the rule against repetition really meant in practice, so it changed most of all.

Each week, Nicholas Parsons tries to explain what he thinks the rules for that week really are, and then goes on to break most of them! This certainly provides a good deal of humour, not least from the outraged comments of the regular players, who keep finding the goalposts have moved yet again! Much of the humour, and interest, is generated from the interaction (and general argy-bargy) between the panellists, as they compete for points. As well as from the often fractious relations between the panel and the chairman, on whom they often gang-up.

Nicholas Parsons knew Clement Freud particularly well, as they had been at school together. Nicholas only became chairman by chance: originally engaged as a panellist, he volunteered to substitute as chairman at the last minute, when the original choice was unavailable on the day for taping the pilot show. His remit to be 'flexible' led to Nicholas improvising various other reasons for awarding (and deducting) points, and to invent a system for avoiding making difficult decisions -- by passing the buck to the studio audience.

Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Kenneth Williams, Ian Messiter, Nicholas Parsons

Back row, L to R: Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Kenneth Williams
Front row, L to R: Ian Messiter, Nicholas Parsons

The show originally aped an older BBC panel game format known as battle of the sexes, as a contest of men vs women. This proved unsatisfactory, because the players were not grouped into teams, but played as individuals. But because of audience familiarity with the older format, in early editions there is a conscious effort to always feature both men and women each week. In some seasons, there is even a regular female contestant, such as Andre Melly, who is in the show every week.

The early years saw a huge turnover in contestants, with at least half the players changing each week, as the show's producer frantically sought to find celebrities who were any good at public speaking, and who could master the demands of the rules. It was such a demanding format that many of the celebrities who turned up were never invited back!

Individual recordings from this show are traditionally identified by the subject chosen for the first round. That practice is adopted here: the filename for each recording includes the original airdate together with the title of the first topic.

This is a collection of recordings which were preserved on vinyl discs by the BBC Transcription Service, and as such these editions are nearly always recorded from overseas repeats, mainly from Australian radio. A recording preserved on a Transcription disc is always slightly edited in order to fit on the disc. This typically means that one round has been lost, compared to an off-air tape recorded from the original UK transmission.

The show was based on One Minute Please, which aired in 1952. And Nicholas Parsons became the chairman as a consequence of his involvement in the 1966 series Listen To This Space. One surviving episode of each of those earlier radio shows is included here.

To listen, you can download the file to your device. Right-click on a link, then click on the 'Save Link As' option:

One Minute Please (1952)

Listen To This Space (1966)

One Minute Please : 1952/09/21

Presented here is the only known surviving edition of One Minute Please, from 1952.

It's Ladies vs Gentlemen in the Just a Minute forerunner, One Minute Please, which ran for three series in the 1950s. Devised by its producer, Ian Messiter, and making its debut in 1951, the original format was a trial of wits between teams of three male and three female celebrities - and with a jury!

Contestants still had to speak alternately on different subjects without pausing, without repeating themselves, and without side-tracking. Unlike its successor, One Minute Please had a further twist of secret passwords that only listeners at home were told in advance. The first mention of the password gained three points - but every time it was mentioned again a point was deducted. If one team member felt someone wasn't sticking to the rules, he or she could buzz in and appeal to the jury - which could either reject it or award a point. A running total of winning teams was kept, so that either the men's or women's teams triumphed at the end of the series.

In this surviving episode from 21st September 1952, Desert Island Discs creator Roy Plomley is the host, and "The Ladies" are Margot Holden, Martina Mayne and Violetta Farjeon; who take on "The Gentlemen" - Gerard Hoffnung, Eric Sykes and Jack Train. The Jury consists of Laidman Browne, Hugh Burden and Humphrey Lestocq.

Copyright Expired Recordings

The 50 year period of broadcast copyright under the UK's Copyright Acts 1956 and 1988 has expired for all items included in this collection:

· Copyright Act 1956, section 14(2):
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1956/74/section/14/enacted

· Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 14(2):
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/14